Note: If you see this text you use a browser which does not support usual Web-standards. Therefore the design of Media Art Net will not display correctly. Contents are nevertheless provided. For greatest possible comfort and full functionality you should use one of the recommended browsers.
Die Tödliche Doris «Natural Disaster Concert»
Die Tödliche Doris, «Natural Disaster Concert», 1983
© Die Tödliche Doris
 


 
Die Tödliche Doris «Natural Disaster Concert»Die Tödliche Doris «Natural Disaster Concert»Die Tödliche Doris «Natural Disaster Concert»Die Tödliche Doris «Natural Disaster Concert»

Categories: Sound | Video

Keywords: Apparatus | Pop


2'
 

 Die Tödliche Doris
«Natural Disaster Concert»

Here, Die Tödliche Doris presents 'Do-it-Yourself Catastrophes' – game instructions, ideas to imitate, and genius dilettantism – in its usual radical and ironic way. A triple solo with various instruments (of torture): song, interpreted by Käthe Kruse; accordion, prepared with tacks and played by Nikolaus Utermöhlen; and Wolfgang Müller on the violin, all in front of burning microphones, is followed by a silent trio – the electric cords burned through, the sound relay interrupted, and only the video band still running.
Along with the performance of the 'Natural Disaster Ballet' (which was also recorded for the legendary 'Rock Palace' broadcast by WDR), this clip-length 'concert' is a magical invocation of a despoiled nature, staged on a denatured, urban natural stage near the Berlin Wall in Kreuzberg District. But the carefully-planned actionism of the three dilettants is always also a calculated use of media, whether film, recording tape, microphone, perfumed petroleum, or, as here, a cigarette lighter. The live version of the concert was performed as 'song' at the documenta 8 in 1987, among other places.

 

Rudolf Frieling